Personal Cruise Specialist Team

Introducing the Personal Cruise Specialist team at Cunard Line

There are so many things to consider when you book a cruise, especially when you’re new to cruising and you don’t know where to begin. Here at Cunard, we have a dedicated team of specialists to help take the worry and stress out of booking your next holiday. In our first blog post by the Personal Cruise Specialist team, Susanna Holding and Gerry Miller tell us what the team does and how they can help to tailor your next holiday to be exactly what you want…

Welcome to the first blog from the Personal Cruise Specialist team at Cunard Line.

We are an exclusive and elite team based at Carnival House, our head office in Southampton, made up of specialists from all different fields within sales, travel and customer services. Our job is simple – we’re dedicated at ensuring your needs are met with a more personalised experience, at the same time as delivering Cunard’s famous White Star Service. Our aim is to share our combined extensive knowledge to best match a cruise, specifically designed just for you.

In each of our monthly blogs, we will be sharing information about upcoming events, on board entertainment and Weddings at Sea, as well as our own on board experiences!

For our first blog post, we thought we would tell you a bit more about ourselves and what we do, so if you haven’t yet had the pleasure of speaking to one of the team, then here’s what we have to offer…

Formed in 2011, the Personal Cruise Specialist team has already helped many of our guests experience the grandeur and elegance that is Cunard. We aim to extend to you a sense of the Cunard community, along with giving you a sense of belonging, before you have even stepped on board one of our ships. Many of our team have experienced Cunard’s legacy for themselves, having had the luxury and privilege of setting sail from Southampton and mingling with fellow guests on board. Some have even been on our legendary Transatlantic Crossing – and you can find out more about that in our next blog post!

By having your own Specialist, you know you will be in safe hands, and we will be able to offer you our knowledge and expertise, each and every time you speak with us, whether it is to check availability, make a reservation, ask questions about an existing booking, or if you just fancy a chat, then we are always here to help.

Newcomers to cruising and past passengers alike will be able to benefit from having a Personal Cruise Specialist. We will keep you informed of new and exciting cruise information, and will be able to select the best promotions designed for you and offer a service like no other.

That’s not all – we also go the extra mile to organise your holiday of a lifetime from start to finish to make your cruise all the more relaxing, exciting and magnificent.

We also have the opportunity, on occasion, to meet you in person, whether it is when you embark on one of our ships for your cruise, or if you are at either of the cruise shows in London Olympia in March, or the NEC in Birmingham in October. One thing we really take pride in is meeting as many of our guests, wherever possible. We appreciate how important it is to our guests that we make that time available, and for them to meet someone in person. We know how much it helps to make your next cruise come to life!

So, the next time you are considering a cruise with the Youngest Fleet in the World, call our team of Personal Cruise Specialists on 0843 374 0002 and let us help you…

We hope this introduction has given you a little bit of insight into what we do as a team. Keep your eyes peeled for our next post on the We Are Cunard blog when Paula Cooper will be talking about her time on board Queen Mary 2.

I gather the Personal Cruise Specialist team is strictly dedicated to those living in the UK and Europe. Anything planned for those of us in the United States who really love the QM2 and the Grand voyages leaving and returning to NY?

I found Stephanie, one of your team, most helpful and booked my next cruise through her after an arm wrestle over my table!! Put me in touch with all the “goodies” and everything I wanted. Not a bad idea for them to be at the cruise terminal on departure where we can thank our Personal cruise specialist personally. Now after that promotion by me how about another discount off my cruise?

What a great idea in terms of customer service by creating a Personal Cruise Specialist team and having this blog.
Hopefully we will be able to take advantage of your talents in the near future.

I personally would like to thank your current President and Managing Director of Cunard , Mr. Peter Shanks for his dedication and work on the We Are Cunard Blog over the last few years not to mention his bike rides for Charity and of course his leadership in the building of three new Cunard Ocean Liners.
Bravo Zulu Peter.

It has been a pleasure to follow your cruise and commentary via this blog as to what makes Cunard say ‘We Are Cunard’
All the best in the future

We have Laura looking after us, its nice to be able to deal with one person all through the bookings, whether on board bookings being followed up, or direct with her , and any queries can be answered with a quick e-mail.

How about a similar service in Canada. Not all your customers come from the U.K.
We first travelled on Cunard in 1959 on the Saxonia and have been travelling with Cunard ever since. Last year we tried your White Service luggage pick up from our home in Huntsville, Ontario. An excellent service, the luggage was picked up on time on the day when we had the worst snow storm of the winter, when we arrived in our stateroom, there was our luggage, in good condition, waiting for us.
Now we are waiting for September when we will take the QM2 to Southampton, stay in London 10 days and travel back on the QM2 to New York.
Beryl Clayson

We wll be embarking on a short cruise tomorrow on Queen Elizabeth having been on her a couple of times since;her introduction into the Cunard fleet. Unfortunately t;his year due to famiy commitments we will only be doing a couple of shsort crluise but these will obviously be enjoyable and relaxing and hope to get back to our longer Cunard crluses next year. We find all three ships tlruly amazing with a courteous and friendly crew including check in staff from embarkation to sadly disemarkation. Keep up the good work Cunard.

I am a Cunard enthusiast and have a booking for my 4th Cunard cruise this coming September, in the Mediterranean.

I have a $450 on board credit for this cruise. However, I am very disappointed that in contrast to previous cruises with both Cunard and other cruise lines, this time I have to pay for any shore excursions booked before embarkation at the time of booking and therefore cannot use my on board credit to pay for them. If I wait to book until after embarkation, I may miss out on my preferred tour if it is booked out.

I am now wondering how I can spend the on board credit and therefore what is the advantage of it being offered?

I suppose I could indulge in many glasses of Veuve Cliquot during the cruise !

Clare, study the tours before you go, choose the ones you want to do, and go to the tour office once on board, as soon as it is open with your list, and you should get to go on what you want. (Thats what I was told when I raised it with the personal travel advisor) On our last voyage trips were cancelled due to lack of demand, so you should be o.k. You can also use it to cover the dining charge, your personal shopping on board, drinks, speciality teas and coffees etc. I am sure you will spend it!!!Have a lovely time.

I recently received a letter from Cunard telling me that due to a system error on board my on board account of $499.77 had not been processed for payment.

I am then asked to make the payment by Credit or Debit card, or make the payment by electronic banking.
It may surprise you that as a UK citizen I do not have a US Dollar debit card/bank account. I therefore have pay it by Credit card. To do that I have to phone a 0843 number, for which I get charged at 13p per minute, I have to wait several minutes listening to a recording, telling me how wonderful Cunard cruises are! I eventually get to speak to someone and we go through a process of explanation, the ‘Cunard Expert’ having to change a system which appears to be running slow, then changing to a ‘non recording system’. which is also rather slow and eventually, I pay my bill.

Cunard will now get their $499.77, but it has cost me time and money because the current exchange rate is worse than that prevailing three weeks ago and I will be charged by my phone company for a 15 minute 0843 call.

I think this is the worst example of Cunard customer relations I have experienced in my 3 Cunard Cruises – very disappointing.